bts@unc.UUCP (10/20/83)
Christians: Do you believe the world will end in or
around the year 2000? Is your belief based on religious
grounds? If so, this survey is for you.
Non-believers: Do you think that fundamentalists in
the current U.S. administration are basing environmental and
defense policies on the assumption that the world's days are
numbered no matter what we do? ("We ARE the last genera-
tion, and we'll damn well enjoy it!") Well, there's some-
thing here for you, too.
I was first introduced to this idea as a child near
Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the year that "2001"
opened, and churches all over the area were denouncing the
film as sacrilegious. Not for the religious themes of the
film-- no, just for suggesting that there would BE a year
2001! These were the same people who taught that Jesus had
preached from the King James Version of the Bible and that
the Baptist Church was older than the Catholic-- having been
founded by John the Baptist. So, I don't take it as a fair
sample of Christian attitudes.
Well, what better place to obtain a fair sample of
views than from the readers of this group. Please overlook
the flippant style of the first couple of paragraphs and
answer the following questions:
1. Do you believe that the world will end in or around
the year 2000?
2. If so, then
(a) on what do you base your belief?
(b) how do you live your life differently because
of this belief?
3. If not, then how tolerant are you of people who may
believe it? (If their behavior reflects this belief,
is it entirely their business?)
Please send your answers to me, and I'll summarize them
for the group-- if there are any answers. I'm also
interested in the history and diversity of such beliefs--
particularly where you can supply references.
Thanks.
Bruce Smith, UNC-Chapel Hill
decvax!duke!unc!bts (USENET)bts@unc.UUCP (10/21/83)
I've been asked, in reference to the "End of the World"
survey, if anyone *really* was offended by the film "2001"
suggesting that Jesus wasn't going to come back in the year
2000 to end it all. Yes, they were. However, they did not
interpret 2000 A.D. as the 2000th year after His birth. No,
they would tell you that just as "B.C." stands for "Before
Christ", "A.D." stands for "After Death". The years during
His life had no numbers.
Who were these people? Mostly members of small,
independent protestant churches. I saw several of them on
Sunday mornings at a local radio station in a semi-rural
North Carolina county. A friend ran the station on Sunday
mornings, and we'd sit in the control room and play cards
while groups of people would come in to preach for 1/2 hour
at a time. Many of them worked in local cotton mills and
saved up money for air time from their paychecks. They'd
come in with a cigar box stuffed with change and small
denomination bills and pay cash for the chance to preach on
the radio. They weren't necessarily stupid people, but they
were almost totally uneducated. Most were functionally
illiterate. They had to make up their own theologies from
the little fragments they could read from the Bible.
These churches typically had memberships of less than
100 people, but there were everywhere. As far as I can
tell, that sort of church is dying out in the South. (Maybe
things have been going down hill ever since most of them
gave up their snakes?) They're being replaced by the PTL
Club, etc. Big business taking the place of people who did
it just out of faith.
Finally, a special bonus for anyone who's had the pati-
ence to read this far: The PTL Club in Charlotte, N.C.,
when they were first getting started in TV Evangeli$m had
P.O. Box 666-- that's where they'd ask you to mail your con-
tributions. I guess someone told 'em, 'cause it's dif-
ferent, now.
Bruce Smith, UNC-Chapel Hill
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